Valorant isn’t like most other first-person shooters. If you want to be good at it, it is not enough to just practice your aim and abilities. Similar to CS:GO, Valorant has a live in-game economy that is a crucial factor and can have a huge impact on every match. You need to understand the economy and know what to buy and when to buy it. Keep reading and check out our in-depth Valorant economy guide that will help you understand it all.
What are Valorant Credits?
Credits or just creds are the virtual in-game currency that can be used to purchase weapons and abilities.
Every player will start a match with 800 credits but not every player will have the same amount of credits to spend in the following rounds. That’s because they are not given but earned.
How to Earn Credits?
There are several ways to earn credits in this game. You can earn them by killing your opponents, winning/losing rounds, or by planting/defusing the spike. When it comes to earning credits, the Valorant economy system is pretty straightforward and you can always know how many credits you will get for certain actions:
- Kill: +200
- Round win: +3,000
- Round loss: +1,900
- Two consecutive round loses: +2,400
- Three or more consecutive round loses: +2,900
- Spike planted: +300 (for the whole team)
- Spike defused: +300
This is a team game and playing only for the kills won’t give you too many credits. In fact, each kill with any given weapon will reward you only 200 credits. On the other side, every round won will reward you the hefty 3000 credits. Unlike kills, winning rounds will boost your team economy because every player in your team will receive 3000 creds. So, the best way to earn credits is, of course, playing as a team and winning rounds.
You will also receive credits for losing rounds. Those credits depend on how many consecutive rounds you lost. The maximal amount you can receive is 2900 and it is for three or more consecutive round losses.
- READ MORE: Valorant Agent Guide: Raze
How to Spend and Manage Credits?
Just like with money in real life, spending credits is the easy part. You can use them to buy the weapons and abilities you want. During the buy period, you can also freely walk through the map and get to the position you want to take at the start of the round.
After reaching your destination, just press “B” and open the buy menu. The buy menu gives you a lot of information. You can see weapon price tags and know exactly how much it is going to cost you to buy everything you need. Each weapon and ability has a different price so you have to be careful with your credits.
If you accidentally buy something, don’t worry, you can sell it before the round starts and get a full refund. Keep in mind that you can't sell items carried from the previous round so always try to carry your weapon of choice or the most expensive weapons that you can drop to your teammates.
In order to triumph in Valorant, you need to know exactly how many credits you can spend in each round and that is not that easy as it seems. You need to learn how to manage credits to never run out of them. However, don’t just save them. Keep in mind that the maximal amount of credits you can have is capped at 9000, so make sure to drop weapons to your teammates in order to avoid a credit waste.
On the other side, the minimum amount is 1900, and sometimes after losing a round, you will have just that. That’s why there are different types of buys and ways to improve your economy.
Types of Buys in Valorant
There are three main types of buys in Valorant: Full-Buy, Half-Buy/Force-Buy, and Eco. In addition to that, there are also a pistol buy for the first round of each half.
The buy menu contains all the information you need to know. You can see the exact amount of credits each player has at their disposal. On top of that, you can always see the minimum amount of credits you will have in the next round so you know how much you can spend. Use that information to properly select your next buy.
It is important for the whole team to have a similar buy. In other words, if someone has extra credits, they should always drop a weapon to a teammate. You can either request a drop in the buy menu by right-clicking on the weapon or buy for the weapon for a teammate that has requested it.
Full Buy
This kind of buy is what you should mostly aim for. Your team economy needs to be strong so all of you can purchase everything you need to maximize your chances of winning that round. In the full buy round, you buy a heavy shield, riffle (Vandal/Phantom or Operator) and all abilities your Agent has. Full buy is the most expensive one and you won’t be able to always get it.
- READ MORE: THE BIG ONES: Valorant Quick Weapon Guide
Half Buy and Force Buy
The half buy refers to a buy that consists of heavy shields and SMG. This type of buy is useful in the second round (after winning the pistol round) or in anti-eco situations. It is easier to kill unarmed opponents with an SMG than it is with a rifle. It is also cheaper to buy one. You just need to predict your opponents' buy and be sure that they will attack with only pistols.
The force buy option is just the opposite. If you lost the pistol round, you can force buy and get everything that you can afford. This type of buy is also useful when there is an important round for you to win but you don’t have enough credits to buy everything. Try to buy at least a light shield and a rifle and you will still have a decent chance to win that round.
Eco
If your team economy is broke, you just have to go eco. That's also called a save round where you don't spend anything and save all the credits for the next round. Sacrificing one round to boost your economy is a good way to get back in the match. In eco rounds, attack sites together and always try to get a plant to receive that extra 300 credits. If you are playing as a Defender, just send all five players and stack one site. It is risky but that is your only chance.
Pistol Buy
The fourth type of buy is called a pistol buy. This buy is only used on pistol round when each player has 800 credits to spend. Make sure to check out our pistol buy tutorials for every Agent.
VALORANT PISTOL ROUND BUYS FOR:
To sum up, every member of your team needs to have a similar buy. You can't go Full Buy while the rest of your team is going Eco. The economy needs to be managed properly so the whole team has a similar amount of credits in the following rounds.
Predicting Your Opponent's Buy
Another thing that is important is being able to predict your opponent's buy. Luckily, Valorant allows you the see the exact amount of credits your opponents have. Just press Tab to open the scoreboard and you will see the exact amount of credits each player has. This way, you can know whether to expect an Operator guarding site or just unarmed opponents with pistols in their hands.
The best way to ruin your opponent’s economy is to make a reset. If they lost three consecutive rounds they will all receive 2900. However, if they win one round and then lose the next one, they will receive only 1900 because the counter will reset. The counter works only for consecutive rounds so make sure to try to reset their economy every time you have a chance. Sometimes, even if you don’t have enough credits, it is better to make a Force Buy just to reset their economy.
See, it's not that hard! Okay, it's a bit complicated but we're sure that with some practice, you'll manage your credits in no time!
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